Guests at Nestor's Palace

Most of the ruins we have seen to date have been from around 400-100 B.C.  One could speculate that this was the height of the ancient Greek civilization, but as we know from when the Byzantines, Romans, Ottomans and other occupying civilizations were in Greece, they tended to take apart older structures and reuse the materials for their buildings.

We know that there were many buildings older than 400 B.C.  Fortunately, this one, The Palace of Nestor, constructed around 1300 B.C., was left alone (after a fire destroyed the palace and it was abandoned around 1200 B.C.), and we could see the clear floor plan, walls, even stairs to what was a second floor!

There were even colored tiles and visible paint on the hearth and walls.

This is the hearth of the King's Throne Room--you can see the black flames around the vertical perimeter, and on the top were spirals.  The circles were the depressions of where columns supported the open roof.  The king sat on a throne to the left.

FYI, this was the Nestor who was an Argonaut in mythology, and fought in the Trojan War.